


And I saw a dream, and this dream slipped away from me

by lieutenant_hatshepsut



Series: Bittersweet ending [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: The Telltale Series (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Arkham Asylum, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 10:04:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14017869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lieutenant_hatshepsut/pseuds/lieutenant_hatshepsut
Summary: Bruce finds the only way to protect Gotham from the person John can become.





	And I saw a dream, and this dream slipped away from me

**Author's Note:**

> many thanks to zara2148 and Gianeya for cathching mistakes <3

Bruce wakes up before dawn. The ceiling is streaked with oblique lines of yellow and white: a mixed effect, born of lamps burning on the street and cheap whitewashing - it covers the walls and leaves streakes on the fingers. Bruce lies motionless, as if buried alive.

He woke up from a bright dream - broke out of it, as out of an unwanted embrace with the smell of sweet perfume and expensive champagne. Bruce hates to have dreams; fortunately for him, he takes pills that relieve him from their deceptive images.

He lies motionless, as if buried alive - but when Bruce hears a sound, similar to the one with which the drops break against the stone - the tapping of bare feet - he is not surprised. John always knows: he knows so much about him, he knows him as well as if he was a part of Bruce. Maybe he was the first to wake up from the nightmare Bruce dreamed of.

Bruce sits up on the bed and pulls his knees to his chest, freeing up space. John finds a place for himself on the blanket, all awkward and long-limbed. He asks - in a whisper, giving their conversation a hint of prohibition and intimacy:

"Are you all right, buddy?"

"Yes," says Bruce; playing along, he doesn't raise his voice. "Just a bad dream."

He has always indulged John earlier - even when he should not, especially when he should not.

"What was it about? " asks John; he worries, nervously crumples the edge of the blanket between his fingers. "Something, hm, from the time _before?_ "

A faint smile on his graceless face, a mixture of anxiety and guilt in his voice - it makes Bruce feel painful tenderness, almost frightening in its power - and this feeling habitually smoothes the sharp corners of decisions he made.

"I don't remember," says Bruce honestly. "But it doesn't matter. The past is past, John."

"It does matter that we are together, right?" asks John fussily. "Always together, no matter what happens?"

Bruce hands him little finger and smiles. If he could count all the smiles in his life - it would certainly have happened that every second one was for John.

"Always together, no matter what happens," says Bruce. "I swear."

John grabs his finger and shakes it frantically. His hands are cold, but his smile is bright - he smiles like an orphan who received a gift for Christmas.

"I swear," he repeats with passion. "No matter what happens. You know, Bruce, for you I'm ready for anything."

 _It's true,_ thinks Bruce.

The sterile white light hits their eyes.

Eight in the morning.

Arkham wakes up.


End file.
